Friday, December 2, 2011

steptoe & son

I am so in love with crappy charity shops. Not the nice ones in rich areas with the rows of pretty, second-hand high street and designer clothes all neatly laid out in accordance to colour and size, with attractive helpful student staff and good lighting, no no no. You know the ones where everything’s a bit crispy and smells funny and you want to wash your hands after handling the goods? Usually full of weird broken toys and the grumpier, more senile members of the elderly community? THEMS the ones where you find the amazing stuff, like floor length polka dot gowns and cropped leather jackets adorned with semi-precious stones and/or 12 miles of shoulder pads, for less than the price of a sandwich. There’s an especially bad/amazing one between my flat and university, and no matter what I do I ALWAYS end up falling in there on my way home. It’s like a sickness. The lure of their £1 rail is just too strong.

I lurched in there today, as per, and for the princely sum of £1.25 bought a midi-length black and white skirt and a glass tankard with a map of Scotland on it.

in its new home, next to the ill-advised collection of ghetto gold earrings

my rug brilliantly adds to the general migraine effect

My favourite part about these gorgeous scuzzholes is that not only do you end up with 12,867 generally bizarre items of clothing (you can never be too prepared for hallowe'en) for about a fiver, but it REALLY ANNOYS your non-charity shopping friends when you can tell them your outfit cost less than their coffee. Especially when you then take them with you, and they run screaming from all the yellowed swimming costumes and stained vest tops one must wade through before getting to the good stuff, i.e. the real white fur coat I got in the aforementioned shop for SEVEN POUNDS;

Cruellaaaaaaaaa, Cruellaaaaaaa

I have totally gone off vintage shops since I discovered these grimy caves of wonder. Plus this way I can buy clothes AND eat! Even if I might spend a lot on hand soap and washing detergent.